Ford is going after the Toyota Prius with its new C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid. In its latest release, the Blue Oval called out the best-selling hybrid seven times while announcing the new crossover's fuel, range and pricing. Ford says the C-Max Energi will travel 550 miles on one tank of gas.

Lotus chief executive officer Dany Bahar was tonight ousted from his job as the boss of Group Lotus. The Nofolk sports car maker's new Malaysian owners, DRB-Hicom, issued a terse statement confirming Bahar's departure. As CAR earlier reported, Bahar had been suspended following an investigation into his expenses.

THE AA has raised concerns over the practice of turning off street lights at night, saying that councils are "ignoring the findings of road-accident inquests" in their bid to save money. The motoring organisation cited the fact that at least five pedestrians and a cyclist have been killed since 2009 because, according to accident investigators at inquests, drivers had little or no chance of avoiding the collisions on blacked-out roads with speed limits of 40mph or higher. The AA added that although some councils have recognised the danger and turned their street lights back on, others were "ignoring inquest findings".